I sometimes underestimate how observant Anna is becoming. I know I need to be careful about swearing or about what happens to be on TV when she’s in the room. Looks like I now have to be even more vigilant when it comes to honesty. I’m not saying that I’m in the habit of lying to my kid, but occasionally you have to do it. If her pet fish dies, what do you want to tell the three-year old, “oh, he went back to the ocean with his family” or “well honey, It died. We only paid about 75 cents for that thing, so I’m surprised it even lasted a week. I flushed it down the toilet so right now it’s floating belly up in our septic system “. Yeah, I’m going with the first option. Sometimes you tell lies to keep things moving, e.g. “sure kid, just get in the car and we can get an ice-cream after we go to the pharmacy”. I know I’m not the only one who does it – you all do it too, admit it.

I don’t worry about these sorts of fibs too much. I have no intention of conveying to Anna that dishonesty is O.K., but I probably assume she has a short attention span and will just forget most of these statements as soon as she’s distracted by something else. I guess it’s time to toss out these assumptions because my little girl is definitely getting wiser and tonight she completely called me out on a lie.

Every night I put her to bed and part of that process involves reading some books and then maybe playing with my iPhone. This second part usually involves playing one of her games like “Monkey Preschool Lunchbox” (awesome kid’s game by the way) or looking through the photo albums and watching the videos we’ve taken with the phone (she even has titles for them, e.g. “grampy’s yard” refers to a video of her playing soccer with my Dad and I, “pony-tail” refers to a video of her running around our house showing off her hair that was in a pony-tail at the time).

Tonight I didn’t feel like playing with the phone, so I tried to stick with just reading some books. After we finished a few she says “watch movies on your phone?” So instead of just saying “No” and dealing with her potentially arguing with me about it – I lied. “Sorry, I left my phone downstairs, the battery is dying.” She gave me a somewhat disappointed look, but she bought it. We read a few more books and then I put her down in her crib.

A few minutes later she asked for one of her stuffed animals. I didn’t know where it was and I really didn’t feel like turning the room light back on, so I pulled my phone out of my pocket  and turned on the screen to use it as a makeshift flashlight. I really didn’t think anything of it, but as soon as that little light came on – she knew.

“Hey, phone? phone?” Even in the small amount of light provided by the screen I could clearly see the accusatory look she was casting my way.
“Oh, yeah it was in my pocket.”
“Batteries? Batteries?” same accusing look.
“Um, oh yeah, honey, I guess I was wrong – but its bedtime now, no movies.”

She didn’t put up a fight, but I could tell that she was thinking – “you’re a big lying jerk”.

Yep kid, I guess I am. Lesson learned, don’t lie to your kid, no matter how old they are (either that, or be smart enough not to get caught).